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The colorful icon that Apple computers use to indicate a page is loading (or about to crash) has become lovingly known as the “Spinning Beach Ball of Death.” Every Mac user knows it — and dreads it. So when Colin Robertson was presenting his vision of crowdsourcing solar energy at the 2012 TED Conference and saw the icon spinning on his slideshow presentation, he knew he was in trouble.

But the technical glitch quickly turned into a jaw-dropping performance as flash-mob pranksters Improv Everywhere staged a full scale invasion of the illustrious conference. The performance-art piece brought to life the so-called Spinning Beach Ball of Death with song, dance, and confetti and made light of the icon of Mac-user anxiety, as well as the gathering of influential tech A-listers.

And don’t feel too bad for “Colin Robertson,” because his real name is Eugene Cordero, and he was in on it.